The story of the Trump administration’s connections to Russia during the elections appears to be quickly snowballing from a mere suspicion to a major incident. Every day, new disclosures are revealed about previously undisclosed, and possibly illegal, contacts between senior members of the Trump administration and Russia, including the Russian ambassador. All of a sudden, Mr. Trump’s joke that perhaps Russia should hack Mrs. Clinton’s emails seems less humorous. Our elected representative, Darrell Issa, has thus far flip-flopped between calling for an independent investigation and then voting against an independent investigation. A lot of voters are wondering if he chose party politics over national security. If the Russian interference in our elections is true, we will have a crisis much larger than Watergate on our hands. Darrell Issa must understand: this is not the time to play politics; this is the time for truth.

comments (25)

Issa is no different that the majority of today’s Republicans. He has never had an interest in the welfare of his constituents. Follow the money, and you will quickly see who he cares about, and it isn’t us.

Two-hundred forty-one years ago we created a Republic of the people, by the people, and for the people. I grew up Republican, but the Republican Party is no longer the party that gave us the 14th amendment, elected the first woman to public office, etc. Today, they are more like the Taliban.

Perhaps, hopefully, people will take an interest in the next election and replace Issa with a person interested in serving his or hers constituents.. We need to elect someone who will work for the people towards recreating a nation of the people, by the people, for the people. We need Medicare for All from conception to the grave. We need to overhaul our public education system. We don’t need vouchers and charter or schools. Charter schools are no better than today’s public education system. We need public and magnet schools that are free from pre-school to a doctorate degree. We need teachers with a minimum of a Master’s degree who graduated in the upper 10-percent of their class. We need small class size – 20 students, 16 if a science class with a focus on science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM), as well as the arts, language (we live in a global society today), history, government. and comparative religion (promote an understanding and respect for others belief systems). Yes, it will cost money, but it will help build a better future for our children.

“Follow the money…” Did you follow the Clinton cash? Political office was simply a means of enriching themselves at the expense of the nation. That couple personify sleaze and corruption and Democrats, after cheating Bernie out of the nomination and with the collusion of the lying media, almost elected that harpy.

As for the Republican party no longer representing the party of Lincoln, look at what the Democrat party has become. The party of the extreme left where pro-life Democrats have no voice, the government mandates men can enter the bathroom with little girls, sanctuary cities and states refuse to enforce the law or cooperate with federal authorities, and a borderless society is promoted. No wonder my folks, life-long Democrats, seldom voted Democrat after Hubert Humphrey. Harry Truman, an excellent president, is rolling over in his grave seeing the extreme left destroy his party. How do you think FDR would view the tacit approval by Democrats of the rioting and blocking of highways by leftists who seem determined to overturn an election where their candidate got beat despite all the help from the media including supplying debate questions and cooperating on stories against Donald Trump? How do you think Martin Luther King Jr. would respond to seeing Obama undoing the work of racial reconciliation he had worked so long and hard for?

“We need Medicare for All from conception to the grave.”

Since the Democrats are all for killing the unborn in the womb and selling their body parts, perhaps you mean from birth to the grave. Remember also, the government has NO money. What money it acquires, it takes from the hard earned income of citizens who don’t appreciate the government taking THEIR money, and giving it to others…that is called theft.

David, I suspect I was a Republican long before you were born. My family were staunch republicans from 1887 on, when they elected my great aunt first woman to hold public office.

The parties flip flopped over the years and the Democrats became the Republic Party of the 1850-1900s, and the Republicans became the Southern Democrats of the 1800s. I don’t deny that there is corruption, in both parties, but the current Republicans take the cake. Today’s Republicans are more like the religious fanatics that created the Taliban.

The Republicans opposed President Obama at every turn. They denied additional funding for Embassy security, they refused the draft as they led us into multiple wars, resulting in servicemen and women having to serve multiple tours in Afghanistan and Iraq, and when they came home suffering from PTSD and TBIs, the VA was inadequately staffed to handle the load. The VA made request after request for additional funds, but the Republicans turned them down each time. The daily suicide rate reached into the 80s. Finally, in late-2011, President Obama issued an executive order that any veteran referred or walking in suffering from PTSD or a TBI would begin treatment within 24 hours. He took funds from the DoD, and in the days that followed, the daily suicide rate dropped into the low 20s. As for my knowledge of the VA, I am a disabled veteran, Vietnam, 1968,

Likewise, they fought tooth and nail to undermine the ACA., although simpler solutions were already available, they ignored them. In 1991, Russo introduced his “Universal Health Care Act”, H.R. 1300, 102nd Congress. In 2013 Conyers introduced his “Medicare for All” Act, H.R. 676, 113rd Congress. Either would have been better than the ACA, because EVERYONE would have been covered. With either program we could have recovered about $500 billion a year by repealing Medicaid, sCHIP, Tricare and EMTALA. They would no longer be needed because EVERYONE would be insured under a single program.

We pay 17% more for our health care than any other country on the planet, and we rank 46 in services received, with millions left without insurance. But, I guess you are alright with that.

As for your remarks about abortion, I am not a fan of abortion, but I do believe it is the woman’s right to choose. If you believe that fertilized eggs are people but refugee, transgendered, gay and lesbian children are not, you need to stop acting like your concerns are religious, because they’re not. Once the child is born, society seeks to wash its hands of any responsibility for the child’s care. If a single mother, then it’s the mother’s fault if she can’t provide, even if the pregnancy was the result of rape. .

The Republican’s want to privatize schools (charter) and prisons. One can see why they like privatized prisons. The answer as to why became clear when judge, Mark A. Ciavarella Jr., and a colleague, Michael T. Conahan, appeared in federal court in Scranton, Pa., to plead guilty to wire fraud and income tax fraud for taking more than $2.6 million in kickbacks to send teenagers to two privately run youth detention centers run by PA Child Care and a sister company, Western PA Child Care.

At the same studies show that charter schools are no better than public schools. They are essentially a taxpayer rip off. But you don’t seem to mind, apparently, because you seldom speak out in support of the youth and our schools.

Perhaps you can explain the rationale for Republican Representative John Shimkus (R-IL) questioning, during a March 9 debate on GOP plans to revise Obamacare, why men are required to pay for prenatal care. Prenatal care is consider essential care under the Affordable Care Act. (NARAL/House Energy and Commerce Committee).

Today’s Republicans are not the Party I grew up with. I didn’t vote for Clinton first time around, but I did support him during his second term, even worked as an independent contractor on two separate occasions; But the system was already corrupted.

Reagan giving massive tax cuts to the billionaires which would have resulted in a $2.7 trillion deficit if not for Reagan and Greenspan finding a workaround in 1983. They borrowed from the Social Security Trust Fund. And now its broken they claim, and the only solution is to privatize it. Privatizing Social Security is not the solution, raising the wage cap from the current $127,000 level to $500,000 would be an easy fix.

But don’t worry about the Republican’s lies. They have gotten the seniors, like me, very upset with their gutting of Medicare in their proposed AHCA. We vote, and come 2018, we’ll get rid of them.

Our founding fathers never envisioned people making a lifetime career of government., and that needs to be fixed. We established term limits for the President, we should have done the same for Congress. We should also limit campaigns to no more than 60 days for local elections, 90 days for State Legislature/Congress elections and 120 days for Presidential elections. We need to get money out the campaign contribution. Establish a public trust, and provide each candidate a fixed amount for their campaigns. Make it a felony to use personal wealth or accept campaign contributions of any form. Abolish PACs, in all their forms, and allow one free 20 second commercial to introduce themselves After than two debates per month until election day, to learn more about the candidate and where they stand on the issues. And RESTORE civics as a required subject for graduation. Only nine states today require civics.

There you go David, changing the subject. You always try and change the subject, rather than address the real issues.

What has Issa done for us? He consistently votes the party line, which always seems to benefit the billionaires. We get the crumbs, if any are left.

What’s wrong with a health care system that provides coverage from conception to the grave for every person? If Ryancare or Trumpcare is better than the ACA, then why are so many doctors, hospitals and seniors opposed it.

Issa defended average Joe citizens against the Obama administration when it used the IRS to attack conservative groups, an offense for which impeachment proceedings were begun against Richard Nixon.
Issa flagged the inflated numbers for the ACA roll out the Obama administration was using to hoodwink the public, numbers they then admitted were wrong and were forced to change.
Issa put Jonathan Gruber’s (Obama’s ACA Harvard guru) feet to the fire when videos of him stating that the ACA was based on a lie but one the American people were too stupid to pick up on.
Issa was against taxpayer funding for the abortion industry.
A simple google will give you how he voted on each and every bill.

“What’s wrong with a health care system that provides coverage from conception to the grave for every person?”

In theory, sounds great. However, just take a look at the Veteran’s Administration to get an inkling of what cradle to grave health care would look like. Do you want our nation’s health care system to look like the Veteran’s Administration? How many neglected patients and deaths are you willing to tolerate? Rarely does the government do a better job than the private sector and if one doesn’t have any competition, what’s the rush or importance of providing quality health care?

“What’s wrong with our public education system that can’t be fixed?”

I didn’t weigh in on our public education system and I certainly am not advocating it go away or be completely replaced. However, the stranglehold the teachers unions have on our education needs to be removed. I am pragmatic, not wedded to any particular brand of education or philosophy; I just want it to be the best.
When we have failing schools and simply throwing more money at them hasn’t worked, then we should NOT employ the cliche definition of insanity. School choice, vouchers, home schooling, and charter schools are other alternatives and should parents choose vouchers or home schooling, then the government should reimburse them some amount of money below that which the public schools are receiving. That said, I don’t have any serious complaint with the public schools my sons attended, but I suspect they’re far superior to inner city schools in say…Chicago.

I will limit my response to your comments relating to Vietnam and Iran for now.

You stated “When our military men were spit upon and referred to as baby killers, was that by conservative Republicans or draft card burning liberal Democrats?”

Sorry, David, but you have bought into the “myth and urban legend that American soldiers were spat upon and insulted by antiwar protesters upon returning home from the Vietnam war.”

This urban legend is more-than-likely a result of the “efforts of the Nixon Administration to drive a wedge between military servicemen and the antiwar movement by portraying democratic dissent as betrayal of the troops, effectively redirecting blame for failure in Vietnam onto protesters.” In the end the Vietnam veterans were vilified “as mentally unfit, emotionally volatile and a bunch of losers.”

I urge you to pick up a copy of “The Spitting Image: Myth, Memory and the Legacy of Vietnam” (1998), written by Vietnam veteran and Sociology professor Jerry Lemcke. Professor Lemck “examines the origin of the earliest stories; the historically inaccurate popularization of the “spat-upon image” through Hollywood movies and fiction literature, and the role of print news media in perpetuating the now iconic image through which the history of the war and antiwar movement has come to be represented.”

In regards to Iran, why do they apparently dislike and not trust us?

I served in Vietnam in 1968. I was a Chief Petty Officer and squadron NATOPS Instructor/Evaluator on acoustic and non-acoustic electronic systems on the P3A and P3B patrol aircraft.

‘Sorry, David, but you have bought into the “myth and urban legend that American soldiers were spat upon and insulted by antiwar protesters upon returning home from the Vietnam war.”’

YES, hook, line, and sinker, I’ve bought into the testimony of thousands of your fellow Vietnam Vets who maintain this was their experience upon returning home. Columnist and author, Bob Greene, asked his readers that if they were Vietnam Vets, were they ever spit upon. He received over a thousand responses which he and assistants verified and edited into his work, Homecoming: When the Soldiers Returned From Vietnam. Stories like the following:

“In the Seattle airport, as I was arriving home after serving in Vietnam in 1968-1969, a gang of 10 to 20 total strangers clustered in the terminal and shouted insults at me as I passed by in my uniform. It never occurred to me that people could … attack individual young soldiers who walked through the airport alone in their sacred hour of homecoming.“

Or this one:

“My family and I were standing in line, when, out of the blue, this middle- aged lady walked up to me with a bowl of potato salad in her hand. She threw the salad smack in the middle of my chest and spat what salad she had in her mouth in my face. Then she proceeded to call me a `baby killer,` a `warmonger,` and a lot of other vile names.
“That was how I was welcomed home. That is how my family was first introduced to America.“

These stories are legion and at the following sites, you can see and hear the testimony of former soldiers yourself:

In addition and contrary to what professor Jerry Lemcke claims, anti war protesters themselves have testified that they treated soldiers this way. In Myra MacPherson’s work, Long Time Passing, Vietnam and the Haunted Generation, she has a whole chapter devoted to women who protested the war and how they mistreated returning soldiers. She says, “As women activists recall that era, it is striking how negatively they regarded American soldiers.” Quoting one Margery Tabankin, a war protester, we read “As we turned against the government, we turned against them as symbols,” said Tabankin…“Instead of government, we blamed the foot soldier.” At the time, reviling soldiers was part of the tactic–such as war-crime tribunals–to heighten the perception that the war had to be stopped. “You had to be for the North if you wanted the people to win.”

Ann Zill, another anti-war protester, spoke of how vilified her brother, a soldier, was. She also said “To the veterans, we were a faceless mass who treated them like shit. Just as I criticize people for not seeing us as individuals, we didn’t see soldiers as people. She spoke of being angry with them and feeling good about saying F-you to let them know they didn’t like war.
No where in this chapter is there any suggestion that Nixon was to blame for the treatment of our returning soldiers…it was entirely the affair of the anti war protesters.

Then there is your Jerry Lembcke, a far left, anti war critic who in addition to claiming Vietnam Vets did NOT experience being “spit upon” or reviled, claims that post traumatic stress disorder was a political invention meant to discredit the anti-war movement. Notice, both claims support HIS anti- war position and call into question the diagnosis of the entire medical profession AND the testimony of thousands of your fellow Vietnam Vets.

I’ll close with a paragraph from a review of Lembcke’s book: Lembcke’s claims are undermined by the testimony of countless veterans who have reported being spat upon by peace activists; nevertheless, his book was well received by mainstream media outlets upon its release, and many credulous journalists persist in unquestioningly recycling its claims.

David, you are saying that when we returned from Vietnam, we were met at the gate and spat on. Troops returning from their in-country tour didn’t come home commercial air. We came home on USAF MATS flights. Occasionally we would come on a civilian airliner under contract to MATS. We came via Travis AFB. Do you thing a bunch of anti war protesters would have been allowed on base?

Ok, without a reputable source for your figures, I’m throwing the BS flag. On the Veteran’s Affairs own website for mental health services and suicide prevention, after a discussion of the difficulties of coming up with accurate figures due to inconsistencies on death certificates, we find this quote: “If this prevalence estimate is assumed to be constant across all U.S. states, an estimated 22 Veterans will have died from suicide each day in the calendar year 2010.” So, 22 is a long way from YOUR figure of “the 80’s”. Furthermore, Obama made the executive decision (one I would support) you describe in late 2012 and it wasn’t to be fully implemented until the end of 2013. Here is the VA document: https://www.va.gov/opa/docs/suicide-data-report-2012-final.pdf

Next we find a new study (2016), reported in the Military Times, and it has this to say:

“Roughly 20 veterans a day commit suicide nationwide, according to new data from the Department of Veterans Affairs — a figure that dispels the often quoted, but problematic, “22 a day” estimate yet solidifies the disturbing mental health crisis the number implied.

It also goes on to say this:

“About 70 percent of veterans who took their own lives were not regular users of VA services. The new data, being released publicly today, is the most comprehensive suicide study ever conducted by the department. For years, the department has estimated the veterans suicide toll nationwide at around 22 individuals a day, but veterans groups noted numerous gaps in how that estimate was constructed.” http://www.militarytimes.com/story/veterans/2016/07/07/va-suicide-20-daily-research/86788332/
So much for your knowledge of the VA.

Finally on the above topic, you mentioned PTSD, the condition that your aforementioned author, a professor Jerry Lembcke, claims was a political invention meant to discredit the anti-war movement. May I assume you don’t believe your chosen author on this score? Why would you believe this crack pot on anything?

Your statement: “If you believe that fertilized eggs are people but refugee, transgendered, gay and lesbian children are not, you need to stop acting like your concerns are religious, because they’re not.”

Not only are you addicted to hyperbole, but to straw man arguments as well. Please indulge your readers as to when I’ve ever said or suggested refugees, gays, or the transgendered are not people. The same can be said about your other charges such as I seldom speak out on behalf of students or schools or health care…all a load of crap.
More on this thread later.

“David, you are saying that when we returned from Vietnam, we were met at the gate and spat on.”

NO, I never mentioned where our soldiers were spat upon and reviled, that information is in the testimony of the soldiers themselves. A number of the instances discussed in Myra MacPherson’s book took place on college campuses when these vets returned to school or even in homes. Does it matter where it happened?

“We came via Travis AFB. Do you thing a bunch of anti war protesters would have been allowed on base?”

Are you for real? Do you think these soldiers lived there on base the rest of their lives? Does not one eventually go home or are you suggesting military flights flew millions of vets to their home cities? You would benefit from watching some of these testimonies.

David, did you serve in Vietnam.? I suspect you didn’t because you have constantly ignored my question. I was there, and I travelled via Travis AFB, and the most time I sent there was about 10 hours.

As observed by Clarence Page after interviewing Lembcke and Greene, “the stories have become so widely believed, despite a remarkable lack of witnesses or evidence, that ironically the burden of proof now falls on the accused, the protesters; not their accusers, the veterans.

In Greene’s book, which you referenced, he includes 63 alleged accounts involving spitting, and 69 accounts from veterans who do not believe anyone was spat upon after returning from Vietnam, among other stories. Greene admits he couldn’t validate the authenticity of the accounts in the letters he received . . . .

If the events occurred in a public airport, where are the police reports or news stories documenting the incidents? I agree, “These stories have to be taken very seriously, but as historical evidence they are problematic. In the first place, stories of this type didn’t surface until about ten years after the end of the war. After Rambo and Born on the Fourth of July, etc.. “If the incidents occurred when the story tellers say they did, in the closing years of the war, why is there no evidence for that? Moreover, many of the stories have elements of such exaggeration that one has to question the veracity of the entire account.”

“I suspect you didn’t because you have constantly ignored my question.”

I just saw your question last night and I’ve been so busy responding to your hyperbole and false claims that I am only now able to respond to your question, one which has zero bearing on the topic, so have patience.

I served in the Navy for six years active and two in reserve beginning just after the Vietnam Nam war ended. In the post Vietnam era, we were not well treated either though there were no protests that I ever saw or heard about. The mistreatment was bad enough that several years after I left North Chicago, the sailors there (NTC Great Lakes) rioted and tore up the strip outside the base.

On a western pacific deployment, we picked up a couple of boat loads of Vietnamese boat people, and burned their boats. They had fled the persecution they suffered at the hands of a communist regime that had no love for those of Chinese descent regardless of how many generations their families had lived in Vietnam. We left the Vietnamese in Thailand.

I have not ignored your “two simple questions”, I don’t know what they are.

I’ll address in a future post where James Clapper stated categorically that there is NO evidence that Russian hacking rigged the US elections. But note, this is an answer to a different question than whether the Russians hacked the DNC.

Joanna, I agree with all you point out. Having lived in SJC for years, I know too well the issues California has dealt with. I do however disagree on the Master degree for teachers. I know many great teachers with 4 and even 2 year degrees. Just ongoing education would be fine with me. Whatever the decision, I just pray our country survives. At this rate we are becoming a 3rd World country.!!

“If the events occurred in a public airport, where are the police reports or news stories documenting the incidents?”

According to the testimony of those who experienced this mistreatment by leftists, the events occurred all over the place including airports. If somebody, or a group of people scream at you, call you vile names and/or spit in your face, why would there necessarily be a police report or news story? Vets who have experienced the horrors of combat are going to alert the police because somebody spits on them or calls them names? Are the perpetrators going to call the police on themselves?

This is the tactic of an anti-war individual with an ax to grind, like professor Jerry Lembcke. He understands that the abuses heaped upon our veterans by anti-war leftists undermine, or in some sense, delegitimize their movement, so he must attack and undermine the truth of that mistreatment. So, he raises the bar for evidence such that only events that are caught on film, reported in the news, or have a police report, are real. So, the thousands of veterans who report such treatment and the anti-war protesters who acknowledge dishing this treatment out, don’t count in his book because to do so would again, delegitimize his anti-war position.

As to why these stories didn’t come out till later, first, I don’t know that that is true. 2nd, traumatized by the horrors of war, many vets didn’t want to talk about anything having to do with the war. 3rd, if one has already been mistreated due to the uniform they wore, why invite further abuse by bringing it up until time has eased the emotions and one feels safe to do so?

I would ask you a series of questions. If none of this ever took place, then why do so many veterans claim it did? Is there something about Vietnam that makes vets want to lie? Why are there those who acknowledge mistreating vets? Why would you believe a book by an anti-war critic over the testimony of so many of your fellow veterans?
When three individuals of the weather underground accidentally killed themselves in their bomb making factory, their intended target was Ft. Dix, as I recall, an army reserve station. Why would these anti-war terrorists target the army if they weren’t taking the war out on soldiers?

BTW, Obama began his political career in the living room of anti-war terrorist and leader of the weather underground, Bill Ayers.

Did you watch any of the videos of soldiers describing their accounts of being mistreated? Are you prepared to call them liars?

I’m just furious that all these shifty Republicans are in bed with the Ruskies! Fifty years ago, no one would believe that the party of Nixon would one day be caught doing such a thing.

I know that it’s all about oil money and that where there is oil money, you’ll find Republicans. But these modern Republicans are all traitors to their flag and to their country. McConnell, Trump and especially the Cowardly Ryan. Traitors.

Issa is right that there should be an independent investigation. And it’s every person on the Trump campaign that needs to be probed relentlessly so we can find out which of these weasels are Russian sympathizers and which are real, God-fearing Americans.

The fact that there is no evidence to support this doesn’t seem to deter the liberal faithful.

“…modern Republicans are all traitors to their flag…”

Is it conservative Republicans that are out burning the American flag and flying the Mexican flag, or is it liberal Democrats doing this? Who is it that takes a knee to the National Anthem, conservative Republicans or liberal Democrats? When our country is disparaged and criticized in high school and college classes across the nation, is that by conservative Republican students and faculty or by those on the left? When our military men were spit upon and referred to as baby killers, was that by conservative Republicans or draft card burning liberal Democrats?

As to Russian sympathizers, that has always been the purview of the left as represented by the Democrat party. Hence, Alger Hiss, prominent member of FDRs administration, was a Russian spy. The Rosenbergs, leftists, were executed for treason for giving away atomic secrets. Walter Duranty, writing for the liberal New York Times, won a pulitzer prize for his white wash of Stalin’s atrocities. And it was Obama who gave Iran, the biggest sponsor of terrorism of any country on the planet and a nation that has caused the deaths of numerous Americans, the sweet heart deal of the century. Think of how much good could have been done FOR AMERICANS with the cash he shipped to Iran. Even John Podesta, chairman of the Hillary presidential campaign, said it was the biggest example of appeasement since Neville Chamberlain gave the Sudetenland to Hitler. It was Obama’s Sec. of State, John Kerry, who thanked the Iranians for capturing and holding our serviceman at gun point, on their knees, and filming them. All this is why the Democrat party is often called the Treason Party. This doesn’t apply to all Democrats but an uncomfortable number of them and brings to mind Stalin’s quip about there always being useful idiots to help his cause.

Although you were responding to Dot Beech, I must say that you sure have a vivid imagination, David, along with twisting the facts. Sec. of State, John Kerry, DID NOT “thanked the Iranians for capturing and holding our serviceman at gun point, on their knees, and filming them” Secretary of State John Kerry thanked them for the quick release of the prisoners. The Iranians could just as well returned them in body bags.

Your reference to the athlete that refused to stay the pledge of allegiance is not new. Lots of people refuse to say the pledge of allegiance. I served my country for 22 years, in both the Navy and the Army, and I love my country. But I do not say the pledge of allegiance either. Why, because of one phrase, “liberty and justice for all.” That is a falsehood, because liberty and justice for all has never existed. The day that every American is treated equally under color of law, I will proudly stand and say the pledge of allegiance again, as will many others who feel the same way

“But still at issue as Obama began his second term was $400 million that Iran in the late 1970s had paid for U.S. fighter jets, while Tehran was still a U.S. ally. After it turned into an enemy in 1979, Washington was not about to deliver the jets. But, all these years later, Iran wanted its money back—and with interest.”
.

FORTUNE: 5 Things You Need to Know About the $400 Million America Sent to Iran

The major issue between the two governments was a $400 million payment for military equipment made by the government of the Shah of Iran, prior to the 1979 uprising that topped him. The U.S. banned delivery of the jets and other weapons amid the hostage crisis, but froze the $400 million advance payment.”

It would be nice before you change the subject, you at least make an effort to get your facts straight.

David, David . . . There you go ago again. You just don’t know your recent history do you? You keep bringing up events from decades ago. I have already agree with you that corruption exists in both parties. Here are two references, of many, from recent history, regarding the $400 million President Obama returned to Iran.

“But still at issue as Obama began his second term was $400 million that Iran in the late 1970s had paid for U.S. fighter jets, while Tehran was still a U.S. ally. After it turned into an enemy in 1979, Washington was not about to deliver the jets. But, all these years later, Iran wanted its money back—and with interest.”

FORTUNE: 5 Things You Need to Know About the $400 Million America Sent to Iran

The major issue between the two governments was a $400 million payment for military equipment made by the government of the Shah of Iran, prior to the 1979 uprising that topped him. The U.S. banned delivery of the jets and other weapons amid the hostage crisis, but froze the $400 million advance payment.”

“It would be nice before you change the subject, you at least make an effort to get your facts straight.”

One who farcically claims Trump is actually “mentally unstable”, that Republicans “are more like the Taliban”, and that Vietnam Vets never experienced the abuse by leftist, anti-war protesters (but was invented by the Nixon administration), should not be advising others to get their facts straight.

As for John Kerry’s thank you to the Iranian government, it is a FACT that this came after our soldiers were captured, held at gun point, and filmed for propaganda purposes. To then thank the Iranians because they returned our soldiers is the height of naivete, nay, stupidity.

As to the $400 million the Obama administration tried to secretly ship to Iran in the middle of the night, any money we owed them for past sales should have been forfeited when they supplied IEDs to our enemies to kill American soldiers. The best that can be said for this whole affair is that we may have saved money in regards to the world court, but this was a case that should have been dismissed because of American lives lost at the hands of Iranians. As it is, the articles YOU posted verify that the optics for the deal were terrible and that Iran indeed, spun it as a ransom for hostages deal…the Obama administration outmaneuvered again.

I didn’t mention the Pledge of Allegiance, I mentioned the National Anthem which a number of prominent liberals are determined not to observe. Although standing for the National Anthem is just one of many indications (and common curtesy) of patriotism to this country, it is another example of liberal hypocrisy to claim Republicans are traitors (not your statement) when again, flag burning, non observance of the National Anthem, disparaging our military and our country, rioting, vandalism, the shutting down of free speech, and flying of the Mexican flag are all part of liberal, progressive history.

When you claim that YOU don’t stand for the Pledge of Allegiance because not every American is “treated equally under the color of law” what Americans are you talking about? In addition and assuming there are Americans in this category, are you claiming you are with holding your “pledge of allegiance” because America fails to be perfect? So any American who feels, for whatever reason, like not pledging allegiance to our flag, is justified in your eyes?

As to changing the subject, where in my initial response to your hyperbole did I change the subject? Instead of the baseless claims you make, I provide examples for the points I provide, examples you and others then complain about perhaps because they undermine your narrative.

Last, you keep repeating your bonafides as if I’m supposed to be impressed (I find them mildly interesting and always salute a fellow Vet) when I’ve made it clear that I don’t care (I don’t mean this disrespectfully) what your “credentials” are. If you wish to impress me, impress me with the wisdom of your analysis, and engaging in hyperbole and farcical assertions is not a good start.

“Trump and his team in the White House are working with the Russians NOW. ”

Where is your evidence? DNI Chief James Clapper said there is NO evidence that Russian hacking rigged our election. The only thing the hacking revealed was the malfeasance of Democrat operatives and that the lying media colluded with them to first deny Sanders the nomination, then against Donald Trump.

There you go again, David, distorting the facts again while continuing to ignore my two simple questions.

Former DNI James Clapper: ‘I Can Deny’ Wiretap of Trump Tower. Clapper was referring to Trump’s lie that President Obama had wire tapped Trump Tower.

NBCNEWS (March 5, 2017): “For the part of the national security apparatus that he oversaw, “there was no such wiretap activity mounted against the president, the president-elect at the time, or as a candidate, or against his campaign,” Clapper told Chuck Todd in an exclusive interview on Sunday’s “Meet The Press.”

Now, carefully note the date of the next article and Clappers statement which I highlighted, but then, in a following paragraph taken from the same article

CNSNews.com (March 5, 2017): “Former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper on Sunday denied knowledge of any wire-tapping of then-nominee or president-elect Donald Trump – but in an assertion receiving considerably less press attention also stated “he had no knowledge of evidence of collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign.”

But, then, in the same article, Clapper states: “This could have unfolded or become available in the time since I left the government” . . . “but at the time I – we had no evidence of such collusion.” Clapper stepped down on January 20, the day Obama’s term ended.

Yet, in the NPR below, dated Two-months before the proceeding articles note that Clappers statement changes no knowledge to affirmation of Russian involvement.

NPR (January 5, 2017): “Director of National Intelligence James Clapper affirmed an Oct. 7 joint statement from 17 intelligence agencies that the Russian government directed the election interference — and went further.”

On March 1, 2017, the New York Times reported that “the British and the Dutch, had provided information describing meetings in European cities between Russian officials — and others close to Russia’s president, Vladimir V. Putin — and associates of President-elect Trump, according to three former American officials who requested anonymity in discussing classified intelligence.”

“Separately, American intelligence agencies had intercepted communications of Russian officials, some of them within the Kremlin, discussing contacts with Trump associates.

“The disclosures about the contacts came as new questions were raised about Attorney General Jeff Sessions’s ties to the Russians. According to a former senior American official, he met with the Russian ambassador, Sergey I. Kislyak, twice in the past year. The details of the meetings were not clear, but the contact appeared to contradict testimony Mr. Sessions provided Congress during his confirmation hearing in January when he said he “did not have communications with the Russians.”

On December 9, 2016, the Washington Post reported the “The CIA has concluded in a secret assessment that Russia intervened in the 2016 election to help Donald Trump win the presidency, rather than just to undermine confidence in the U.S. electoral system, according to officials briefed on the matter” . . . “It is the assessment of the intelligence community that Russia’s goal here was to favor one candidate over the other, to help Trump get elected,” said a senior U.S. official briefed on an intelligence presentation made to U.S. senators. “That’s the consensus view.”

The Trump transition team dismissed the findings in a short statement issued Friday evening. “These are the same people that said Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction.” Trump seems to be unaware that it was the Bush administration that lied about Iraq having WMD.

Finally, on January 6, 2017, Wired produced an extensive article “The ODNI’s 25-page report (embedded below) from US intelligence agencies lays out a vast Russian intelligence operation that extends from hacking both Democratic and Republican targets to propaganda campaigns to troll-fueled social media disinformation. It re-asserts the intelligence community’s findings that the Kremlin is behind breaches of the Democratic National Committee, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, Hillary Clinton’s campaign, and even state election board websites. And the express intention of those operations, the report states, was to not only disrupt the American electoral process, but to elect Donald Trump.”